The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/65892
Wπ traditions Happy Birthday, You Old Goat! FOR A GENTLEMAN of his vintage, Gompei the Goat still knows how to kick up his hooves when it's time to party. Student Alumni Society past president Nick Mondor '12 declines to divulge the true age of WPI's beloved mascot, but it's well known that this "kiddo" has been on the scene for more than a FHQWXU\—since 1893, to be exact! Intrepid reporter W. Polly Teknick spotted the capricious party animal Whoopee-ing it up on his Third Annual Birthday Cele- bration, Feb. 27, in Alden Memorial. "All who attended had an excellent time," says acting SAS president Tim O'Neil '14. "Gompei was truly appreciative of the love and support given to him all day long." More than 200 Gompei's Birthday T-shirts were awarded in under two hours to students competing in events like "Pin the Beanie on Gompei." Students and faculty alike gave generously to the SAS-sponsored "Gifts for Gompei" toy drive for the Ronald McDonald House. "For the third year in a row," says O'Neil, "Gompei's Birthday was a spectacular success." GREAT PROBLEMS SEMINAR 2011 REAL-WORLD SOLUTIONS FOR REAL-WORLD CHALLENGES 55teams, 250students problem solving Great Problems Seminar Hits Home GPS winners have strong local focus literary masters Dickens Goes Digital Project Boz shares Dickens serials with the world. THE WORLD CELEBRATED the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birth on Feb. 7, 2012, and WPI was busy wrapping a birthday gift for the world— Project Boz. This two-year initiative by WPI's George C. Gordon Library is digitizing many of Dickens's novels pub- lished in their original serial form, including roughly 12,000 pages of text, original advertisements, and illustrations. The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicho- las Nickleby, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations are just some of the famous works being digitized. "Boz" was the early pen name of Dickens, and Project Boz will allow for greater access and appreciation of Dickens's work by offering an online source for research- ers and students, according to Tracey Leger-Hornby, dean of library services at WPI. The Dickens collection was generously donated to Gordon Library in 1995 by Robert D. Fellman, a friend of WPI, establishing the university as the premier source for Dickens materials in Central Massachusetts. The collection recently obtained a rare oil portrait of Dickens painted in 1874, which now hangs in the WPI archives above a desk used by Fellman. The portrait and many other items from WPI's Dickens collection will be on display at the Boott Gallery in Lowell National Historic Park until Oct. 20, 2012, as part of yearlong celebration of Dickens's birth. Alumni can learn more about Project Boz and the Robert D. Fellman Dickens Collection at dickens.wpi.edu. WPI STUDENTS ARE WELL KNOWN for solving real- world problems in faraway places. This year, the fifth annual Great Problems Seminar pitted teams of first year students against global challenges in four areas: Feed the World, Power the World, Heal the World, and Grand Challenges in 21st-century engineering. Students spent two terms finding ways to improve life in locales from Haiti to the South Sudan. But a surprising number of proj- ects focused on problems of nutrition, disease control, and affordable energy right in our own backyard. Of the five top posters selected by judges, four had a local focus. Two addressed "food deserts" in neighbor- hoods of Worcester. (The USDA defines a food desert as a low-income census tract where either a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a super- market or large grocery store.) "More than a Mirage: Oasis in the Desert" and "More to Your Door" tied for first place in that area, proposing ways to make healthy, affordable food available in low-income neighborhoods. The top entry in the Heal the World group was "Cleanli- ness and Sanitation in Morgan Dining Hall," assessing trouble spots such as the salad bar and the self-serve milk dispensers. Other projects in that category investi- gated "Sanitation Practices in Alumni Gym Weight Room" (a runner-up), and "Smoking at WPI." In the Power the World category, "Economic Feasibility of Geothermal Heat Pumps in New England" was named the top poster. Trustee Phil Ryan '65 also addressed the group, com- paring the hands-on projects to his more textbook-based education at WPI. "What you've accomplished is well beyond knowledge. You've discovered practical solutions that could transform the lives of real people." 18 Spring 2012